1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lab-on-a-chip and, more particularly, to a lab-on-a-chip for controlling a capillary force and a method of driving the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The development of human society has led to ceaseless development of chemistry-related industries, which involves the development of chemical analysis techniques. A chemical analysis technique commonly refers to a method of discerning and detecting materials, and finding the chemical compositions of the materials.
In order to make a rapid and accurate chemical analysis, development of a chemical analysis apparatus for enabling an automatic chemical analysis instead of manual analysis by a researcher is under way. As long as a collected sample is supplied to the chemical analysis apparatus, the chemical analysis apparatus may, in a single measurement system, automatically blend the sample with reagents, allow the sample to react with the reagent for a predetermined amount of time, transport a reactant to a detector, and output an electrical or optical signal in proportion to the concentration of a target to be measured.
In recent years, a new apparatus obtained by finely embodying the automatic analysis apparatus in a subminiature chip has been developed and is called a lab-on-a-chip.
A lab-on-a-chip is a device that enables lab experiments using a subminiature chip into which hyperfine-circuit semiconductor technology, nano-technology, and bio-engineering technology are integrated. The lab-on-a-chip may accelerate an experimental research process using only an infinitesimal quantity of sample. The lab-on-a-chip is a bio-chip that is being developed as a diagnosis/analysis device in various fields, such as medical and bio-engineering fields.
Since a lab-on-a-chip has a fine fluid channel, while guiding a fluid sample to the channel, various manipulations, such as mixtures and reactions of the fluid sample with reagents and detections of the fluid sample, may be performed to make a chemical analysis. When the chemical analysis is made using the lab-on-a-chip, a chemical analysis process may be greatly simplified. Also, a lab-on-a-chip used once is discarded and a new lab-on-a-chip is used. Thus, pre- and post-processing processes of the chemical analysis process may be omitted. A protein lab-on-a-chip used for analyzing and measuring a specific protein in the blood or a deoxyribonucleic-acid (DNA) lab-on-a-chip used for analyzing and measuring specific DNA in a sample is being put to practical use and widely used.
A conventional lab-on-a-chip may still enable an immune reaction due to a fluid change caused by capillary forces of upper and lower substrates and sidewalls and structures of the upper and lower substrates. However, an immune reaction, such as an antigen-antibody reaction, may be greatly affected by not only the capillary forces and the structures of the upper and lower substrates but also the height of a chip.
Accordingly, in order to obtain a high signal intensity using an infinitesimal quantity of sample, it is necessary to maximize binding events between a capture antibody planted in a lower substrate and a target antigen in the blood.